Smithsonian.com

The sun begins to set as workers harvest salt. “The image of diligent women working the salt fields reflects the hardship of this job,” says the photographer, who used a Canon EOS 7D.
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(Photo by Hoang Giang Hai.)

These rolling rice terraces are almost ready for harvest. The photographer, who says hundreds like him rush to the area each year to capture the life cycle of the grain, used a Canon EOS 7D.
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(Photo by Vo Anh Kiet.)

Musicians arrive at the bullring before all other guests to secure their seats. “It was a magical, beautiful frame and did not last long,” says the photographer, who used a Nikon D7000. “Everything happens so fast. When faced with a beautiful scene, you are afraid of losing the moment.”
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(Photo by Raul Amaru Linares.)

A young boy participates in the “tiger dance,” a 200-year-old colorful folk art performance. Painting tigers onto performers’ bodies takes six to seven hours, according to the photographer, who used a Nikon D-300.
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(Photo by Indranil Sengupta.)

A river ferry moves along Xiaodong River at dawn. “The red lanterns against the blue misty morning provided the contrast and strengthened the image as a whole,” says the photographer, for whom this was the first use of a digital rather than film camera, a Nikon D300.
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(Photo by James Khoo.)

The photographer climbed up a mountain for two hours, reaching an altitude of 617 meters, to achieve this shot of an early fog floating over yellow rice paddies. The camera used is a Nikon D3S.
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(Photo by Hai Thinh Hoang.)

Monks release glowing lanterns into the night sky during the Loy Krathong Buddhist Festival in Thailand. The photo, shot with a Canon 50D, captures “the essence of peace and serenity” of the event as the monks release their negative thoughts through the flying lanterns and focus on the future, the photographer says.
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(Photo by Daniel Nahabedian.)

The photographer captured this misty landscape with a Canon EOS Rebel T1i while visiting Bagan with her daughter. "I have been to Bagan several times," Tha said, "But I hadn't previously had a chance to take a photo like this."
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(Photo by Han Tha.)

A hiker looks onto the path before him in Bryce Canyon National Park in the middle of the night as the Milky Way stretches upward above. The photographer, who used a Sony A900, had been shooting the day’s solar eclipse.
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(Photo by Jason J. Hatfield.)

A lone acacia tree stands in the burnt sienna sands of the Namibian desert against the rising sun. “The acacia tree provided a sense of scale and a sense of the beautiful desolation of the place,” says the photographer, who used a Nikon 300S.
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(Photo by Bob Bush.)